Tampa Bay Buccaneers DT Akeem Spence proved to be one of the team's better players through their offseason workout program. Spence could hold off competition from DT Clinton McDonald with a strong training camp. General manager Jason Licht praised Spence's work ethic. "He just hasn't let up on the gas. It was fun watching that competition between him and Clinton during our OTAs and our mincamps, and I expect it to continue in training camp."

Tampa Bay Buccaneers DT Akeem Spence said Wednesday, Nov. 6, that the threat of fines has caused the defense to slip in recent weeks. "The first couple weeks we were getting fined out of the woodwork," Spence said. "That did take away some of our physicality. The first couple weeks we were crushing quarterbacks, and then we kind of got away from it because we got a lot of penalties." In the first four games, S Ahmad Black (now a free-agent), DT Adrian Clayborn, LB Lavonte David and FS Dashon Goldson were each fined by the NFL.

Fantasy Tip: Whatever the reason might be for the decline in production, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers DST is not a unit worth using in any fantasy format. They have allowed 27 or more points in four consecutive games.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano praised DT Akeem Spence Thursday, Aug. 29, saying Spence is getting better every day. "He's getting better every day and he's starting to understand how hard it is to play in this league," Schiano said. "So he's playing well - at times. But he's still an inconsistent rookie."

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers released their first unofficial depth chart of training camp Friday, Aug. 2, and DT Akeem Spencer is behind DT Gary Gibson at defensive tackle. The rookie Spence is still believed to have a very good chance of starting by Week 1.